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Churchill’s wartime fantasy

In February Nature reported on the rediscovery of a long-lost article which Winston Churchill sent to his publisher on 16 October, 1939, just six weeks into WWII. Rather than addressing the conflict in Europe, the eleven-page essay, which remains unpublished, asked Are We Alone in Space?

In Churchill’s words: ‘I am not sufficiently conceited to think that my sun is the only one with a family of planets. I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilisation here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that we are the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space and time.’

About Writing Magazine

Want to make sure your readers are hooked from the start? In this month's Writing Magazine, learn how to grab your readers' attention and keep it all the way to the end.
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